The Foals
Aaron Hill and Hulmes had a vendetta. Hill returned to the TWF in June 2009 after an extended hiatus and teamed up with his best friend since childhood, Hulmes, who had polarised opinion since he disbanded his wildly successful tag team with Tobias Granville in February. Hill and Hulmes were personally effected by the actions of a man in the TWF's shadows, but who has always been associated with it: Mr. BIG. The duo would comment on BIG's every action, be it on his Twitter feed, various appearances at charity events or even just being pictured with his then girlfriend by various tabloid magazines. The duo claimed that they did this to show that BIG was not a man of his word and he ultimately was disrespecting the business to which he owes his being. They were also angry at what they considered constant abuses of power by the TWF CEO through out it's history and they championed Paul Heyman for Black Sunday "basically because he stood up to him and said that this isn't just your baby anymore".To the duo's surprise, Mr. BIG made his return to the TWF at Summer Break X, teaming up with his one-time enemy Marz to become tag team champions. The duo saw their chance and pounced, attacking Biggie and bringing up his series of comments regarding the God of War from years past about how they would never team up again. Hill and Hulmes's surprisingly good mind games worked wonders against their legendary foes. Hill's own "masterstroke" was his plan against Mr. BIG in their Hell in a Cell encounter at Nowhere to Run, admittedly borrowing the idea from the Harlequins rugby team, Hill used a blood capsule to trick the match official into thinking he was choking to death after a BIG Storm, so the cage door was unlocked. Whilst the official's back was turned, Frekishi returned to the TWF through the crowd, entering the cage and hitting BIG with the same move that sent him crashing to the floor in Orlando in 2003 and almost killed him - the Sit-Out Powerbomb. The humiliation wasn't complete until Frekishi hit Mr. BIG with a spear through a cell panel. Hill and BIG wanted to settle their personal score at No Holds Barred in a match that would prevent any interference as any contracted talent would be suspended six months without pay should they interfere. Again, Hill pulled a dirty trick, Sarah Thomas, a former foe from BIG's past once more, made he way down to ringside and provided the distraction as Hill hit Biggie with a low blow and The MasterStroke to win once more.
While the focus was on Hill and Biggie's personal war, Hulmes's war against his former partner brought him an alliance with the former Intercontinental Champion Mike Haggar and the duo tormented the young man until eventually, he was offered salvation by Biggie and Marz in the Metal Militia. On the Grit BasH following his incredible victory over BIG, Hill announced that he had formed a faction to take on the Militia consisting of Frekishi, Haggar, Hulmes and himself, being managed by Sarah Thomas. He christened the team "The Foals", his reasoning being "we're a bunch of kids who don't get a chance up against the Metal machine". His reasoning was not lost on his enemies when, moments later, Mr. BIG reminded Hill that one member is older than him and at least two of the Foals were older than Marz. The mind games played by the team worked wonders however as Marz and Mr. BIG's friendship seemed rough, highlighted by Marz walking out on Mr. BIG after he was pinned by Hulmes in a Six-Man Tag at Halloween Hell. The two's tag team championship match was signed for Dangerously Serious and all but the most die-hard members of the Militia were anticipating new champions, but right at the death, Marz and Mr. BIG revealed that they had been friends all along and after a month of uncertainty and no-shows, they hit Hill with their Endgame finishing move and retained their championships.
The Foals were irate at being played like this, so the team challenged Marz, Mr. BIG and Tobias Granville to the second Devil's Den match in TWF history, with the Foals adding a new member in Lewis Kingston at this point, another man who felt wronged by the Militia, albeit 10 years earlier when the TWF first started and he was not invited to join. The Militia team was filled up with the Assassin and the most unlikely of partners in High Voltage, who put his hatred for both members of the Militia aside to take on his greatest rival, Frekishi. The match was bloodied and brutal, the most hellacious match in TWF history with no doubt. Hill made the headlines however when he clocked Marz with a guitar shot right after he had eliminated Mike Haggar, legitimately knocking Marz unconscious. Mr. BIG, enraged by this, had the fight of his life as he made both Frekishi and Hill submit to a Sharpshooter and the picture of Mr. BIG, face covered in crimson with his arm raised in victory has become iconic.
Hill showed no remorse for his actions and through the early part of 2010, irritated fans by stating that given the chance "he'd do it all again". The Foals continued to berate the weakened Militia, with Hill even taking a shot at Marz's late grandfather who passed away during the TWF's Christmas break. Fans screamed for Hill to get his comeuppance, and he got it alright. Entering at #4 in the Time Crisis match, Hill before the match said he expected to win the whole thing and taunt the Militia that he would become the new World Champion. Much to everybody's shock, it was Mr. BIG who entered at #5 and he spent almost the whole hour of his time in the match attacking Hill and making sure he knew that he had crossed the line. When Marz made an emotional return later in the match, those superstars standing left the ring for a brief moment to allow Marz to attack Hill, such was the sense of wrongdoing even Hill's peers felt at his actions. Marz would win the match and receive his title shot at No Way BacK.
This began to mark a change of course for the Foals as no matter how hard they tried in their battles against the members of the Metal Militia, they could not get through. In late-January 2010, Mr. BIG finally got a victory over Aaron Hill in a Steel Cage match. Lewis Kingston then made his legitimate hatred of Marz clear and gained a TWF World Championship match at Easter HeAT. Kingston was unsuccessful, as was Frekishi in his long awaited re-match with Mr. BIG. Slowly, the Foals disintegrated. Firstly Hulmes wanted to get rid of his former tag team partner, Tobias Granville, from the TWF and challenged him to a Loser Leaves Town match at Against All Odds… which saw Hulmes lose and instead of waving his partner goodbye, Hulmes left the company. Reeling from the loss of Hulmes, Aaron Hill put up a similar proposition against Mr. BIG in the TWF's first ever show at the historic Margam Park… and he too lost. Mike Haggar's association with the group petered out and after Lewis Kingston was unsuccessful in a tag team match at Total Chaos, the Foals were officially disbanded as he had left the company.
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